The Eco-Comedy Video Competition for spring 2012, sponsored by the Sierra Club and American University's Center for Environmental Filmmaking, is looking for short, funny YouTube videos that communicate a clear message about green jobs and clean energy.

Entries must be received by March 2. More info and official rules can be found here.

ON THE RADIO1) Tovar Cerulli author of The Mindful Carnivore2) Avital Binshtock from Sierra magazine on greening your hotel stay 3) Chris Youssef and Peter Syrett from Perkins and Will on their new transparency site 4) Seasonal citrus ideas from the executive chef at Greens restaurant in San Francisco. Listen | Subscribe

If the proposal is passed, shoppers would pay 10 cents a bag and about $20 million a year would be raised for eco-restoration projects. Don't like the idea of a bag fee? No problem. BYO bag.

Photo by Amy Brinkley

Just Say No to Liquified Natural Gas Exports

As if the natural gas industry hasn’t done enough damage, now it's looking for new ways to further profits while sacrificing our clean air and water. Its new trick is exporting liquefied natural gas (LNG). This would mean more destructive fracking, more pipelines, and more carbon pollution.

"All this news means cleaner air for thousands of Americans, and it's the
result of years of tireless advocacy by hard working local residents and
volunteers," says Mary Anne Hitt, director of the Sierra Club's Beyond
Coal campaign. "But the transition from coal to clean energy needs
to happen in a way that protects workers and communities."

Solar Synagogue

Los Angeles Sierra Club member Jan Freed had a vision: He wanted
his synagogue to go green. Two years ago, he began a campaign to have solar
panels installed atop Temple
Sinai in Glendale, California.

The temple's new solar
array was dedicated on January 29. "We are all here because of the vision
of one man who started us on the path of true environmental sustainability," Rabbi Richard Schechter said at the dedication. Read more in Scrapbook.

Photo by Leonard CoutinThe Condensed Appalachian Trail

The Appalachian
Trail ran through Kevin Gallagher's childhood backyard in Virginia, and he and his
family regularly hiked sections of the trail near their Shenandoah
Valley home. Those hikes inspired him to complete the
entire 2,181-mile trail from Georgia
to Maine.

On his six-month
trek, Gallagher took 24 photos of 24 steps along the trail each day, and he
returned home with more than 4,000 slides. He has just released a video that strings together the scanned slides and takes viewers on a journey down the entire trail in less than five
minutes. Read more about Gallagher's
journey and watch his video Green
Tunnel.

Photo by Kevin GallagherTomorrowland

During the 1964 World's Fair, General Motors' Futurama ride predicted a metropolis replete with fossil fuel–powered modes of transportation that would take humans to space, to the Arctic, and into the deep oceans. With fossil fuels, new technology, and unbridled human spirit, the city of the future would know no bounds.

Thankfully, our notion of what a city can be has changed a bit since 1964. But the question remains: In 2025, when 80 percent of Europeans, North Americans, and South Americans will be urban dwellers, what will our cities actually look like? Will they be sustainable? Sierra magazine considers the possibilities.

Image: Vincent Callebaut Architectures

When You Speak, Your Voice Is Heard

Last week more than 800,000 Americans called, emailed, wrote letters, and even sent videos to tell the Senate to let the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline die. The Sierra Club worked with many partners to generate what some have called the biggest day of environmental action since the first Earth Day in 1970. A few days earlier, 86,000 Sierra Club members delivered the same message to the U.S. House.

We know what an impact that has. But it's nice to get some outside perspective on the effectiveness of our grassroots mobilization against Keystone. So we were thrilled to see Forbes magazine credit the Club, our large coalition, and YOU who have taken action with showing how a "well-integrated grassroots initiative driven by superior digital strategies can trump the conventional inside-the-Beltway politicking of even so formidable a presence as the oil industry."

National School Lights Out Day

New Jersey high school student Victoria Pan wants to turn the
lights out at her school. And she wants other schools to go dark too.

Winner of the Sierra Club's
Joseph Barbosa Earth Fund Award in 2011, Pan created an organization called Students Saving Energy. She is following that up with "National School Lights Out Day" -- inspired by Earth Hour 2012 -- encouraging schools to turn
off classroom lights on March 30 to teach the lesson of electricity consumption
and where it comes from. If you're a high school student or know one, pass this along.

Photo by Natalie Brasington

Sierra Club Getting Vets and Their Families Outdoors

"When you're outside, you can just focus on what’s around you. You're reminded, this is America, this is what I fought for."So says Stacy Bare, an Iraq War veteran who is now the Sierra Club's Military Families and Veterans Representative.

When a bill that would have gutted local fertilizer bans during the rainy season came before the Florida legislature recently, the Sierra Club pulled out the stops, holding five press conferences in 11 days and mobilizing citizens and elected officials to speak out against the bill.